Tomas Netik is Sparta Prague's Cramo Top Scorer with four points – all of them goals. That also ties him for the overall CHL scoring lead after two games. He scored the team's only goal in a 2-1 loss to Farjestad Karlstad on Sunday afternoon.

by Karolina Antosova

PRAGUE – It was a close loss, but after a tough fight. Sparta Prague didn’t give up all three points easily – Farjestad Karlstad had to play their best. The Czech team was better in the first period, had more chances and played with more speed. Most of all, they scored a goal thanks to Tomas Netik. But in the rest of the game, the Swedish club showed how good it is. “They played good hockey, but I think that also our game was quite good,” says Sparta’s Cramo Top Scorer after the 2–1 defeat.

Maybe a tie would have suited this game more. But hockey is not a game where you play on “maybes”. Sparta just didn’t use their chances and scored only once. Compared to Farjestad, who scored twice, it wasn’t enough.

What do you think about their team? It’s said that Swedish teams set the pace for hockey in Europe. Did you feel it like they were one level higher than you?

“I don’t know if there are one level higher, but they have a really aggressive and excellent team. It’s one of the top teams in the SHL and also in Europe. In this game they were better in the key situations. But on the other hand, if they hadn’t scored that lucky goal during our power play, maybe they wouldn’t have scored at all. They played good hockey, but I think that our game was also quite good. The result is it’s 2–1 for them in this game.”

The fans must have appreciated this game, which was quite aggressive and at a good speed. It was up-and-down hockey. Don’t you think that both defence lines were sometimes opened way too much?

“Well, the game was played quite aggressively. That probably shouldn’t happen, but we wanted to go after them and the same was from their side. The aggressiveness sometimes caused players to be left uncovered. For us, it’s just a shame that we didn’t use these situations and didn’t score the second goal.”

According to you, what was it the key moment in this game? Besides the goal, you also had a few other chances in which you could have definitely scored.

“It’s usually like that. A one-goal lead isn't safe. When your opponents tie it, it usually gives them wings. It’s really deceptive and that’s exactly what happened to us. We could have easily finished this with a 1–0 win, or we also could've added a second goal and been a bit safer.”

So why didn’t you score twice? Was the pressure around the goal crease missing?

“We were just hitting the goalie all the time. Sometimes you score on every chance, sometimes you don’t. Maybe we were missing a little bit of luck, maybe a little bit of experience, and probably also the pressure in the goal crease. Next time we have to put the puck in the net somehow.”

And what about the power play? You had almost no pressure in it, and also gave up a shorthanded goal. 

“We’re not playing how we should yet. It’s mid-August. Sometimes it takes more time to play how you want. They were really aggressive during their PK and we didn’t pass the puck how we should have. It’s about one pass. Either you succeed or fail. We didn’t do well enough against them.”

You were the only scorer for your team. In the CHL you now have four goals in two games, after your hat-trick in Krakow. Do you feel your shot is in good form?

“I hope it is. I believe that I know how to score and everything will continue this way.”

On the last power play you were really close to scoring your second goal. Your shot didn’t miss by much, do you agree?

“Oh yeah, the one-timer – that’s my favourite shot. Juraj Mikus served it to me beautifully. I think I hit the puck cleanly. If it had gone around 20 centimetres higher, it would have been a goal. Too bad...”